Better Food Coming To O'Hare

By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 18, 2012 3:00PM

O'Hare has been inching towards palatability over the past few years with the addition of Tortas Frontera, Rick Bayless's life-saving airport cafe. Every foodie we know always instagrams a picture of their sandwiches as a way of saying "travelling sucks, but at least I get a sandwich." Things are about to get better, at least for Terminal 5.

Time Out Chicago reports that Terminal 5 is about to get a food makeover. There will be another Tortas Frontera, bring the total up to three, and Lettuce Entertain You is also jumping on board. Miniature outposts of Hub51, Wow Bao, Big Bowl and Urban Olive will be fixtures of the renovation. Tired of airport Starbucks? Intelligentsia will be opening a cafe.

At least it's a start. It's not quite Paul Kahan's pipe dream of a fine-dining airport food court that exemplifies all of Chicago's great restaurants (including a mini-Publican), but it shows that administrators are realizing that there's money to be made with good food and local brands.

The renovation, which will cost $26 million, will be complete by the fall of next year.